


a tribute to minecraft, the game that defined my childhood

by Kittycathead



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Reality, at least not most of the time, reality fiction, this doesn't take place in-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26877187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittycathead/pseuds/Kittycathead
Summary: Four children played together on the same Minecraft server. They had memories of each other, but never in real life.They grew up, and life consumed them.But what happens when they meet?
Relationships: Friendships - Relationship, siblings - Relationship
Kudos: 3





	a tribute to minecraft, the game that defined my childhood

**Author's Note:**

> credit of the end poem goes to julian gough
> 
> you should check out his work, he's got some cool stuff

Raindrops pattered gently against the window, creating a gentle lull despite the raging storm outside. Maya grabbed the old, clunky laptop with her grubby hands and settled it onto the floor, before gently opening it up. She fetched the wired mouse that she kept with it, plugging it in and placing it next to her right hand. 

Maya adjusted her oversized creeper hoodie she got for her last birthday, and logged into her computer. Double-clicking onto the Minecraft icon, she let the launcher pop up, before quickly pressing Play and entering her game. She swiftly navigated her menu over to the server she would always find herself playing on, and let the pixels overtake her screen. 

\--

Isaac’s parents had been fighting again. 

They had been doing it for a while, yelling and screaming at each other while Isaac cowered in his closet, covering his ears, waiting dreadfully for it to stop, only for it to start again an hour later. 

When he mustered up the courage to peek out of the closet, his parents were silent. They weren’t looking at each other, and didn’t seem to notice his presence. He tiptoed to his computer, which they let him keep in his room, and logged onto the Minecraft server he enjoyed playing on so much. 

At least for a little while, he thought, his parents didn’t have to exist.

\--

Every day, Jackson had to put on a brave face for school. 

He wanted to scream, to cry, to be able to tell at least someone about what he was feeling. That person had been his grandmother before she died. 

His parents would get mad if he tried to tell them anything about it, because they were always busy, they said. They didn’t have time, they said. They had to work overtime, they said.

How much of that was really true? It was a question he pondered often, and one he didn’t have many escapes from. 

When he got home from school, the first thing he always did was to log onto Minecraft and join the server he’d been playing on for years.

Why did his parents deserve his attention if they never gave him theirs?

\--

Maddie brushed her ginger curls to the side, and adjusted her glasses on her face. It was ten p.m., but she didn’t care. 

Ten p.m. meant solace from humanity, it meant time alone, it meant none of her human demons would be awake to taunt her. It meant no one would try to text her reasons why she was unattractive, or weird, or why she would be ignored if she died. It meant that the only light shining would be her desk lamp, or the screen of her computer in front of her face. 

It meant that she could hang out with her only true friends, even if they were across the Atlantic Ocean. 

She put on her headphones, logged into Minecraft, and entered the server, hoping her friends would be there waiting for her.

\--

<Mayapappaya> guys i think there’s a zombie spawner nearby

<Danger_Zone20> I JUST FOUND GOLD ORE

<puppyluvr> IM BEING ATTACKED BY SKELETONS HELP MAYA

<Mayapappaya> can i have some danger?? Plz??

<puppyluvr> MAYA HOW DARE U

BeigeDestruction has joined the game

<BeigeDestruction> hey wassup?

<puppyluvr> MAYA BETRAYED ME

<puppyluvr> SAVE ME FROM THESE SKELETONS

<BeigeDestruction> HOW COULD YOU MAYA

<BeigeDestruction> BEIGEDESTRUCTION TO THE RESCUE

<Danger_Zone20> cant blame her, ive got the goods ;)

<Mayapappaya> he does! :D

<puppyluvr> DONT RUIN HER INNOCENCE >:0

<Mayapappaya> gold is innocent tho!

<BeigeDestruction> how maya is still innocent is beyond me

<BeigeDestruction> guys i gtg my parents are calling for me

<puppyluvr> ok bye

<Danger_Zone20> bye

<Mayapappaya> baiii

BeigeDestruction has left the game

<Danger_Zone20> i have three fs and my parents still havent noticed

<puppyluvr> lol same

<Mayapappaya> my parents get mad at me when i dont do my homework :c

<Mayapappaya> you guys are lucky

<Danger_Zone20> no your the lucky one maya

<Danger_Zone20> your parents actually pay attention to you

<Danger_Zone20> ive had 3 detentions in the last week and they didnt even get mad, they just signed the slips and told me to go away cuz they were busy :/

<puppyluvr> i get called weird by this mean girl in my class named emery

<Mayapappaya> my little sisters name is emery and she has down syndrome

<Mayapappaya> mom and dad said that means she learns slower then everyone else

<puppyluvr> yeah thats what that means

<puppyluvr> do your parents pay more attention to ur sister maya

<Mayapappaya> yeah :c

<Mayapappaya> they still pay attention to me tho! :D

BeigeDestruction has joined the game

<BeigeDestruction> im back 

<BeigeDestruction> my parents wanted me to eat dinner

<BeigeDestruction> my mom doesnt cook good food

<BeigeDestruction> she gets mad when i say that tho

<Mayapappaya> lol!

<puppyluvr> of course shed be mad, u would be mad too if i told u ur house was bad

<BeigeDestruction> i spent 3 weeks working on it! >:(

<puppyluvr> see?

<Danger_Zone20> beige ur hilarious XD

<Mayapappaya> oh no i gtg! my parents want me to eat dinner :0

<Mayapappaya> baiii :D

<Danger_Zone20> bye

<BeigeDestruction> cya

Mayapappaya has left the game

<puppyluvr> bye

<puppyluvr> im getting tired gn

<BeigeDestruction> gn

puppyluvr has left the game

<Danger_Zone20> what do u wanna do?

<BeigeDestruction> my parents are yelling at each other again and its scary :(

<BeigeDestruction> im gonna go before they get mad at me

<BeigeDestruction> bye

<Danger_Zone20> bye

BeigeDestruction has left the game

Danger_Zone20 has left the game

\--

When Maddie awoke in the morning, she was disheveled. She was already running thirty minutes late to all of her classes, because her schedule was fine-tuned so she would be exactly on time - not early and not late. (She was afraid of Emery - Emery, the witch of her nightmares, the one who tried, at every whim, to control her self-esteem, and succeeded - because Emery called her out on all of the tiniest things. Did Emery know the damage she was doing? Probably not.)

The sun was shining directly through her bedroom window, blinding her, and it annoyed her. Why did the day have to mock her insecurities?

Her morning schedule was rushed that day - and not without consequence. She forgot to eat breakfast that morning, and her stomach was growling when she got to school. Emery took notice of her messy hair and called her out on it in front of the entire class. 

Emery was extra bold that day, too - she began sending her threats for what would happen if Maddie didn’t obey. She knew none of them were empty. Emery had every student at her beck and call, and no doubt had plans to utilize that. 

At some point the news reached her parents that she was being severely bullied. Maddie didn’t remember how they found out. It could have been from the principal, or from another student telling them while they were out waiting to meet the teacher for conferences. Maybe she let it slip one day that Emery was teasing her to the extent that she was. She simply didn’t know; the cause of their discovery had erased itself from her mind. 

What she did know, however, was that her parents immediately began taking her to therapy upon finding out. They wanted their daughter to have the best life possible, and that started with a good self-image. Her therapist was extremely kind and considerate, as therapists ought to be, but hers was especially so. Emery ended up facing heavy punishment from the school and her parents. 

Life didn’t let Maddie get off easy, however. At the age of sixteen, Maddie was diagnosed with severe social anxiety, which was concluded to be from her forced compliance to Emery’s will when she was younger. 

She also didn’t remember when she stopped playing Minecraft in favor of other things. She learned how to sew, and how to make clothing. She was a bit of an old soul, but it didn’t bother her. People always complimented her designs, too. Maybe she should start a boutique, they’d say. 

Maddie never took those words as compliments. She took them as pressure to live up to everyone’s expectations. She always felt crushed, and tried to work hard to get out of those chokeholds. But she could never quite get there, no matter how she tried. 

\--

Isaac’s return to reality forced him to discover that his parents were indeed splitting apart. 

Despite the fact that he had seen it coming for years, it still shattered his heart over and over every time the word popped into his mind. The grief was so intense, he often felt like he was mourning the loss of another human rather than a seemingly simple relationship. 

In a way, that was accurate - at some point, his parents’ marriage had taken on a character of its own; it was a character that always seemed stretched too thin, or one that was trying to hold the last pieces of its life together. It was a character that had reached its breaking point and could stand no more. Like many, it ended its life. He often wondered, in a small corner of his mind, if his parents’ divorce was the death of that character, or if it was a suicide. 

At the very least, he could have his peace now. Things were much quieter, but whenever he was at one parent’s house, he missed the other dearly. He was often in his room, thinking, or playing Minecraft when he could. The little solace in his world came from his online friends and the blocky universe the four of them had created. 

When he wasn’t playing Minecraft, he would play with his Legos. More often than not, he found himself reconstructing the buildings that he knew and loved from Minecraft, or building physical incarnations of memories from when his parents still loved each other. Tears would sometimes stream down his face as he built. All of them were things past. Places, objects, people. Things, times, relationships that could never be brought back. 

Everything had changed, and time cannot be reversed.

Perhaps a part of him hoped secretly, in a deep place, that if they had physical matter, those memories would come to be all over again. Yet it could not be, and maybe it was better that way. A thread of bitterness had begun tinting all of those happy memories, and he knew not of its existence. 

Some days, he would sit and look at the ceiling when his tears had dried up. Even after years passed, the sting still hurt his heart. 

But Isaac had learned to stash it away, to place it in a vial designed to collect dust in the back of the most obscure closet of his mind. He was supposed to be over it, they’d say. He couldn’t cry, he was becoming a man, they’d say. 

So every time those emotions threatened to resurface, he always told himself, not now. It’s not the right time.

Would there ever be a right time?

\--

Sometimes Jackson wondered if he even had a reality. 

So much of his time was consumed by the pixels and blocks that made up what little he had, and the connections that were built by them. Occasionally he would try to imagine that his isolation was a game, and that Minecraft was his reality. He felt it would be better that way. It was a pity, he thought, that the interwoven connection between his favorite game and his undesired reality wasn’t more tangible. He had read books he’d borrowed from his cousin about people who had been graced with the ability to enter Minecraft, to live a double life like that. He wanted that. He  _ needed _ that, but people only want what they can’t have. People only  _ need _ what they can’t have.

Perhaps that is why they need it. 

Jackson would consistently ponder this as he walked through the hallways at school, or as he laid in his bed and watched YouTube videos until four in the morning. It would randomly enter his mind as he began to get in trouble with the law, hoping for even a shrivel of emotion from his own mother and father.

It started with small things, like shoplifting and intentionally getting caught, but eventually it escalated into alcohol addiction. He had already been to juvenile prison twice by the time he turned seventeen. 

People would say it was because he hung around the wrong crowd, but he knew better. He knew that any trace of affection he got from those other boys could be as fake as his parents’ affection for him, yet he didn’t care. At least he chose to be around them.

He wanted to feel something other than emptiness inside. He wanted to be appreciated, to be respected and loved. The only place where he truly felt that was in a good game of Minecraft with his online friends. He knew it sounded cheesy, but it was true. It wasn’t something he planned to admit to his so-called friends anytime soon. If he was being honest with himself, he knew they would probably laugh at him if he told them. They simply didn’t understand. 

But in the end, did anyone, really?

\--

Maya ended up hating sunny days. 

Was it because her sister Emery loved them? Maybe, but that wasn’t all there was to it. She often felt like the sun mocked her, and detested how other people would use the sun as a symbol of hope and light and happiness. It was supposed to be the almighty source of light, but in Maya’s opinion, all it did was blind people. 

Somewhere, somehow, hatred began brewing in the heart of a once-innocent girl. What was soft became hard; what was hard became unbreakable. Her thoughts slowly became darker and darker as time passed, and what was once a cheery child became jaded, and pessimistic, and brooding. 

At first, she would unleash this pent-up negativity in the Minecraft server she was always on. But as time passed, she grew, and so did the other members of her online friend group. Life swallowed them up, and she let life swallow her up too. 

Her only escape was gone, and she hadn’t even felt it being ripped from her hands.

Her substitute was sitting in her room, on her creeper-themed bedspread, listening to sad music and the Minecraft soundtrack that she’d bought three years earlier. Oftentimes, when she stared at the blank ceiling, she would ponder about her worth. Emery took so much of her parents’ time, and they barely ever stopped and paid attention to her. Disabled children have special needs, they said. They take a lot of time, they said. Their words did nothing to ease her worries.

As time went on, she began thinking lesser and lesser of herself. She never said anything, because she knew she would probably just be called an attention seeker. She knew her parents were too busy with Emery to care. So, when she wasn’t living in her own self-pity, Maya would play singleplayer Minecraft, going through the motions, beating the Ender Dragon again and again. She would see the end poem again and again, letting it play while she went to fix herself a snack.

She never noticed Emery drinking the words on the screen while she was gone, or writing them down so she could read them over and over again. She never noticed how Emery saw every single derogatory comment she texted to her own phone number when she was feeling especially disappointed in herself. She never thought to look.

After all, Emery was the center of attention. Why should she care about her long-forgotten older sister?

\--

Danger_Zone20 has joined the game

Danger_Zone20 has left the game

\--

puppyluvr has joined the game

puppyluvr has left the game

\--

Mayapappaya has joined the game

<Mayapappaya> of course nobody’s here

<Mayapappaya> they left me a long time ago

<Mayapappaya> im boring

<Mayapappaya> i want to die

<Mayapappaya> nobody cares about me

<Mayapappaya> the world will be better off without me

Mayapappaya has left the game

\--

puppyluvr has joined the game

puppyluvr has left the game

\--

BeigeDestruction has joined the game

<BeigeDestruction> ahh the memories

<BeigeDestruction> shame nobody else is ever on anymore

BeigeDestruction has left the game

\--

One day, Maddie’s family decided to move to America. 

It was a surprise, but it was because her father got a promotion at work and needed to move to America in order to be able to do his new job. Maddie was anxious because she knew nobody in America, and the likelihood of finding her old online friends (who mentioned they lived in America) was essentially zero. Not that it mattered, but she knew it would suck that they wouldn’t be able to know she would be living in America from this point on.

Her social life wouldn’t be impacted much, she knew, because she had very few friends and even fewer close ones. Her anxiety had prevented her from making many, because her mind was always over obsessing about what could go wrong. She wondered what America looked like. She had heard that Americans drove on backwards streets, and they had a funny accent, and they always ate hamburgers for dinner. People had told tales of gleaming skyscrapers and blazing innovation. They had also given warnings about dangerous alleys and sales taxes, whatever those were. 

Would America be pretty? Would it be nice? Would the people be like those in London, or would they have a life all their own? Would there be a McDonald’s at every corner, like everyone said?

Much to her own surprise, she found herself much more curious than anxious to find out. 

\--

Jackson had been caught trespassing inside the building of a jewelry store. 

He was waiting in the police station for his parents to show up, and they never showed their face. The police force didn’t want to send him home, because clearly he wasn’t getting the discipline he needed. Three hours had passed since they had brought him there, and they were wondering where his parents were. Were they dead? Were they always traveling? Of course the police had begun to wonder, considering how little they showed themselves. 

Jackson ran his hand through his fluffy hair and stared at his lap. His eyes unwittingly began to steam, blurring his vision. Drops of water landed on his sweatpants, creating traitorous circles of dampness on them. 

Jackson was . . .  _ crying. _

When was the last time he had done that?

The sheriff ordered that his parents be called again. People were bustling around the station, and he struggled to hear what the phone operator was saying over the cacophony of voices. 

Suddenly, a voice rang out. “It went straight to voicemail, sir!”

Jackson knew his parents took special care to make sure their phones never died in the case of a severe emergency. He couldn’t recall a single time where they let their phones die. They always answered the phone when someone called, too, even if it was a scam caller. 

Unless - 

The realization hit him, and it hit him hard.

_ They had blocked the police’s phone number. _

It couldn’t be - or could it? It always seemed as if he was such a nuisance, such a disposable item. They would much rather be without him, he was sure. 

After all, every single attempt at a grab for attention, an attempt to get himself disciplined, made them ignore him even more. He could see it in the way they looked at him - there was no love involved. Only a burden they didn’t want to carry.

He was a burden they dropped a long time ago. They had seemingly blocked the phone number of the  _ police force _ \- if that didn’t speak volumes, what ever would?

They were very careful and meticulous people, and it was very clear they were being careful and meticulous with his disposal. 

A few more hours passed (he had entered the store illicitly in broad daylight, so by this point it was eight p.m.), before the sheriff ordered his parents be called again. The operator held it on speakerphone to show the sheriff just what was going on.

_ Rrrrrring- _

“You have reached the voicemail of - ”

_ Click. _

Jackson looked up. His tears had been short-lived, but they left marks on his face. His eyes were still a little bit puffy, but for once, he didn’t care. 

The sheriff immediately noticed how out of it Jackson was. It was a lack of composure that was unheard of in his character, especially at the police station. Usually, he was an emotional statue. But today? Today was different, and even he didn’t know why. 

“Do you have any ideas as to why your mother and father aren’t answering their phones?”

Jackson wasn’t sure how to answer. He knew the answer, but he didn’t want to say it. As much as he despised his parents, he didn’t want to get them in trouble. 

But before he could answer, a disheveled ginger suddenly burst into the building. An obvious British accent coated her words.

“I found the lost cat of Isaac Doherty, what should I do?”

Sure enough, there was a cat in her arms, writhing. In one of her hands was a piece of paper, which was wrinkled from being clutched so tightly. She struggled to flatten it, but when she did, it was a LOST CAT poster. The photo matched the cat in her arms. Underneath said photo, there was a phone number and the name Isaac Doherty. 

The police officers gave her a strange look. They then noticed that the poster didn’t contain an address, and they realized that she was given no other option. Someone had the operator dial the number on the poster.

“Hello?”

“No, you’re not in any sort of trouble. Someone found your cat.”

“Yes, yes, they’re at the police station.”

“You’ll be here in fifteen minutes? Alright.”

“Goodbye.”

\--

Maya’s parents were upstairs in their bedroom, working. The door was shut. They probably didn’t want to be bothered. 

Emery was reading a book. Maya didn’t bother trying to see which one, because she was more focused on the opportunity at hand. 

Maya tiptoed through the hallways, taking extra care to be quiet around Emery’s and her parents’ bedroom. Emery’s door was open a sliver, so she made sure to be fast when she passed her room.

Even if nobody would notice or care, it didn’t hurt to be careful. She didn’t want to be caught until after the deed was done. 

With that thought in mind, Maya slipped out the side door, quietly shutting it behind her and breaking out into a run.

\--

At some point, her vision began blurring. Tears were streaming down her face because deep down,  _ she didn’t want to die. _

She didn’t want to do this.

_ She had to do this. _

She wanted to live, to find love, to grow old and watch society change for the better.

_ She was being a coward, and she needed to face the consequences for being subhuman. _

It didn’t take her too long to reach the small cliff, and she stared hesitantly at the ground twenty feet below. 

She remembered reading that in Japan, when a person committed suicide, they would take off their shoes first to show that their death was intentional. So Maya decided to honor that, even though she was a white American. 

She quietly began untying her shoes, and placed them next to her. A small part of her screamed to change her mind, to turn back, to rethink her decision so she can strive to find somewhere, someone,  _ something _ to live for.

Maya pushed those thoughts away, and ignored the rushing footsteps she suddenly began to hear. Before she could give her mind more time to boil, she gave herself a running start and jumped.

\--

Twenty feet is not enough to kill a person. 

Maya realized this too late, as she slammed into the ground with the force of a jackhammer. She immediately broke her right arm and one of her ribs, and cried out at the pain that was suddenly rocketing through her body. Once she was done tumbling down the hill that the cliff led to, she found herself laying on her back, unable to move. The tears were steady, but it hurt to sob, so she was forced to let them out in silence. 

Two pairs of footsteps ran down to her aid. When the faces they were attached to peered down at her own, she found that one was Emery’s and the other was a young man she didn’t recognize. 

Emery was crying, and the man looked incredibly concerned. The latter stood up after a second, and dialed the police. He was explaining what was going on over the phone, and Maya herself was in a daze. 

_ Why did Emery care about her? Why did this man care about her? _

_ Why did  _ anyone _ care about her? _

It didn’t take long for the police to arrive. They began assessing the situation immediately, and one of them even brought her shoes for her. They helped her put them back on, because it was clear Maya couldn’t do it herself. 

She was taken to the ER, and had casts placed on her chest and arm. Afterwards, she was taken to the police station, where she had to wait for her parents to pick her up. 

When she arrived, she found Emery waiting for her, carrying a folded green something. She handed it to her older sister, and upon holding it with her good arm, Maya found it to be the creeper sweater she used to wear. It was several sizes too small, but she kept it for the nostalgia it gave.

“You take it, Emery,” she said, her voice thick. “It’ll fit you better.”

Emery shook her head, and placed the hood of the sweatshirt on Maya’s. The latter used her arm to hold it in place. 

“Emery . . .  _ why? _ ”

She didn’t say a word, but she seemed to be mentally preparing herself for something. Everyone looked on, confused. 

A girl in the corner had a cat in her arms, as well as a poster. A guy was sitting next to her, and had a hoodie on and tear stains on his face. The young man sat down next to the girl with the cat, and Emery began to recite the absolutely last thing she would have ever expected her to memorize.

\--

“I see the player you mean.”

All four of them looked up at the little girl standing in the middle of the room, shock evident on their faces. 

“Mayapappaya?”

Everyone except for Maya herself did a double take.  _ This _ was the kid they played Minecraft with back in the golden days?

As Emery continued, Maya’s tears began spilling out all over again. How could Emery, sweet, innocent little Emery, see straight through her like her walls were made of glass? 

“Does it know that we love it? That the universe is kind?” Emery asked. To Emery, it was merely the next line, but to Maya, it was so much more. Every figure in Maya’s vision was a blurry blob, but to her, it was a sign. Maybe Emery, maybe  _ Minecraft _ , maybe  _ everything else _ was right.

“But there are times it is sad, in the long dream. It creates worlds that have no summer, and it shivers under a black sun, and it takes its sad creation for reality.”

Maya let herself collapse, holding herself up with her good arm. She was trying so hard not to choke on the lump in her throat, but it was so, so difficult. 

The others in the room had misty eyes as well. Watching someone fall apart is never an easy thing to watch, no matter who it is. 

“ . . . and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through zeroes and ones, through the electricity of the world, through the scrolling words on the screen at the end of a dream . . . ”

The tension in Maya’s chest finally exploded, and she let out a painful sob. Were her walls really so fragile, as to be shattered by the poke of a twig, or were they crumbling this entire time? Were they actually being crushed with the sledgehammer made of innocence and love? Everything was too blurry for her to make anything out clearly.

“ . . . and the universe said I love you . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you have played the game well . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said everything you need is within you . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you are stronger than you know . . . ”

Tears began to slip down cheeks as everyone else began to feel something be rejuvenated in themselves. There was something about the moment that made them feel as if they were in their own golden days again, even if they didn’t spend their childhoods playing Minecraft. 

“ . . . and the universe said you are the daylight . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you are the night . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said the light you seek is within you . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you are not alone . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you are not separate from every other thing . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code . . . ”

“ . . . and the universe said I love you because you are love.”

Everyone stared at Maya, who was on the floor, watching her heart get shattered into little pieces so it could be reinflated. Some of them wondered if their own heart was made out of glass, ready to be dropped and broken so it could be mended into a better state of being. None of them could have ever guessed that she was being mended by the source of her inner demons. 

“And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.”

Maya looked up at her younger sister, dumbfounded.

“You are the player.”

A silent but heavy pause overtook the room.

“Wake up.”

\--

Isaac was the first to speak up.

“I . . . I remember playing Minecraft with a player named Mayapappaya. She mentioned having a little sister named Emery, with Down syndrome.”

(It was not hard to tell that Emery was different. All of the physical indicators were there.)

“We played together, but we weren’t alone. There was someone named Danger_Zone20, and someone called puppyluvr.”

Maya looked up in shock. “BeigeDestruction?”

Jackson and Maddie looked up too, and then at each other. The former stood up. 

“I . . . I was Danger_Zone20. I miss those days.”

Maddie held the cat steady with one hand, and raised the other. “And it just so happens that I am puppyluvr.”

The four looked at each other, grins plastered on their faces amid the tears. Isaac took his cat, and they all went in for some kind of awkward group hug.

They all decided to introduce themselves, with their real names this time. Then everyone looked at Maya.

“We were so close to losing you, Maya,” Isaac told her, and she broke down all over again. Despite only knowing her in reality for only five minutes, he spoke with the tenderness of a concerned older sibling. 

Emery rushed over to her sister, tugging on her shirt sleeve to get her attention. Maya looked at her for a moment, and was suddenly tackled into a hug. Emery began crying into her shoulder, and mumbling how much she would have missed her. 

It was then that Maya began to wonder when she had gotten so lucky. 

\--

<puppyluvr> THE NOSTALGIAAAAAA

<puppyluvr> HOLY CRAP

<Mayapappaya> remember when we went to the end and that one enderman just freaking catapulted danger off the end platform? XD

<Danger_Zone20> it wasnt THAT funny! >:(

<BeigeDestruction> XD

<Mayapappaya> XD

<puppyluvr> XD

<Mayapappaya> we still have the tnt from the time we planned to blow up the zombie dungeon!

<BeigeDestruction> dont forget that was MY idea

<Mayapappaya> we all know it was mine ;D

<Mayapappaya> also my mom says i have to go to therapy starting next week so i wont be able to play as often

<BeigeDestruction> thats ok :)

<BeigeDestruction> whatever helps you get better

<BeigeDestruction> its much much better than losing you to suicide

<BeigeDestruction> best wishes

<Mayapappaya> thank you! :D

<puppyluvr> HEY DANGER I FOUND THE DIAMOND STASH YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T HAVE

<Danger_Zone20> L I E S

<Danger_Zone20> I NEVER HAD A DIAMOND STASH

<Danger_Zone20> you mightve raided beiges

<BeigeDestruction> you did WHAT

<Danger_Zone20> rip puppyluvr

<Danger_Zone20> can we get an f in the chat

<Mayapappaya> f

<Danger_Zone20> f

puppyluvr was slain by BeigeDestruction

<puppyluvr> WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY

<BeigeDestruction> YES

<Mayapappaya> gtg, parents are calling for dinner

<BeigeDestruction> c u tomorrow? :)

<Mayapappaya> yeah! :D

Mayapappaya has left the game

BeigeDestruction has left the game

<puppyluvr> i have homework

<Danger_Zone20> ok

puppyluvr has left the game

Danger_Zone20 has left the game

\--

None of their inner demons were entirely gone, and that was okay. They all had something bigger to work for, and so much of their life left to live. 

The thread that had held them together in childhood had been rewound, thicker and stronger than before. They would play together whenever they could, though it was a lot less often now than in childhood because they had so much to do. 

All was right in their little blocky world, even if it wasn’t in reality. As long as they had each other and the utopia they had built in the peak of their innocence, they would be okay.

After all, why would it be considered an ending if it wasn’t the start of something much grander? There was so much to complete, and the game never ran out of ideas. How could they have split apart in the first place?

Maybe it was to strengthen them. Maybe, in their separation from their mutual interest, they were to build their character separately, so that they weren’t dangerously interdependent. 

Maybe it was to remind them that their reality wasn’t contained in pixels on a screen, but in the long dream of life. 

If life is but a dream, then what is the true reality? Will we ever know? Can we find out?

Shall we take the next step together?


End file.
